A novel isotope pool dilution approach to quantify gross rates of key abiotic and biological processes in the soil phosphorus cycle

Wanek, Wolfgang; Zezula, David; Wasner, Daniel; Mooshammer, Maria; Prommer, Judith

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-3047-2019

Articles | Volume 16, issue 15

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-3047-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-3047-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 15

Research article

|

09 Aug 2019

Research article |

| 09 Aug 2019

A novel isotope pool dilution approach to quantify gross rates of key abiotic and biological processes in the soil phosphorus cycle

Wolfgang Wanek, David Zezula, Daniel Wasner, Maria Mooshammer, and Judith Prommer

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Final revised paper (published on 09 Aug 2019)
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Preprint (discussion started on 15 Jan 2019)
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Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'A methodological advance that will facilitate studies of soil P fluxes', Anonymous Referee #1, 05 Mar 2019
- AC1: 'Revision notes to reviewer 1 and 2', Wolfgang Wanek, 30 Apr 2019
- AC3: 'Point by point response to reviewer 1 and 2', Wolfgang Wanek, 07 May 2019
RC2: 'interesting, but better description and validation (comparison to existing protocols) needed', Anonymous Referee #2, 06 Mar 2019
- AC2: 'Revision notes to reviewer 1 and 2', Wolfgang Wanek, 30 Apr 2019
- AC4: 'Point by point response to reviewer 1 and 2', Wolfgang Wanek, 07 May 2019
AC5: 'Revised version of manuscript bg-2018-519', Wolfgang Wanek, 05 Jun 2019

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (07 May 2019) by Sébastien Fontaine

AR by Wolfgang Wanek on behalf of the Authors (05 Jun 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (06 Jun 2019) by Sébastien Fontaine

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (14 Jun 2019)

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (21 Jun 2019)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Thanks for addressing all comments and improving the manuscript.
I went through the answers and would like to comment on a few of them (using the numbers of the questions by reviewer 1 and subsequently your #:
1) this new figure is certainly helpful. Only the reason for the parallel steps acidification vs. isobutanol fractionation does not become clear. Maybe you could indicate what is derived from the comparison of the two ways of analysis?
2) Fine, although here you could maybe refer to Di et al. 2000
3) Mostly fine. I would just change the sentence “effects of increased Pi mobilization due to microbial lysis on Pi sorption-desorption could be tested in sterile soils”. How about deleting “of increased Pi mobilization due to”? I think this leaves what this is about – effects of microbial lysis on Pi sorption-desorption….
4) Fine.
5) Somehow the text that you give here in the response letter does not completely match the text in the manuscript. And even though you give some references above, I would say that a reference to one of Fardeau’s papers would be justified where you speak about extrapolations of r(t)/R.
6) Fine
7) Fine

#16: I leave this to readers to think about – the added sentence, however, is certainly useful.
#22: this should be explained in the manuscript!
#24 and 36: not clear if you made any changes to the text?
#28: I don’t understand the sentence “In these previous studies abiotic processes were not corrected from the final data.” And you should add “In the present study,“ before “This abiotic correction was performed by applying IPD calculations”.
#48: well, you should facilitate reading for your audience…
#50: ok, please add these sentences to the manuscript.
Once these points have been addressed, the manuscript is acceptable for publication.

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (24 Jun 2019) by Sébastien Fontaine

AR by Wolfgang Wanek on behalf of the Authors (26 Jun 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (09 Jul 2019) by Sébastien Fontaine

AR by Wolfgang Wanek on behalf of the Authors (12 Jul 2019) Author's response Manuscript

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Short summary

Efforts to understand the global phosphorus (P) cycle are limited by the scarcity of global data on rates of soil P processes, as well as on its environmental controls. Here, we present a novel approach using radiophosphorus labeling of soils, which allows for the measurement of fluxes of abiotic and biotic soil P processes. This approach is also suitable for strongly weathered and P-depleted soils. Biotic processes are corrected for abiotic processes by comparing live and sterile soils.